Autumn Newsletter 2024
Here is our latest newsletter about what we have been doing at Perlins during Autumn.
We have had a busy season at Perlins! Everyone enjoys the opportunity to do yoga every morning. In September we harvested lots of vegetables such as tomatoes, beans and onions. We use all of these in our soup that we cook every day. We all take turns in having a go at cooking. We also made vegetable sticks out of carrots, cucumber and peppers that we had grown and made some hummus to go with them. We decided that another good way to use up our vegetables that we had grown would be to have a pizza week. We put courgettes, peppers and tomatoes on them. They were delicious!
Our shed that stored our garden machinery and tools was very old so we decided to build a new one. First we levelled out the ground and used a cement mixer to mix concrete for a base. Then we built a frame. We put the cladding on the frame and a roof. We sanded down some old doors and used them for the shed. Then we put all of the garden machinery and tools in the new shed and took down the old shed.
​In October we made a new leaf compost area, collected all the leaves and filed it up. We will be able to use the leaf mulch on all our vegetable plots as it turns into nutritious soil and is really good for the vegetables when they are growing.
​In pottery we have been learning how to make lots of different things. We have used the rolling machine and the tile cutter to make tiles. We also used the rolling machine to get the clay ready to make slab pots. We have used moulds to make bowls and cups. We have also made some coil pots. We made and tested some stoneware glazes made from wood ash. We have all learnt how to make our own earthenware glazes to decorate our pots on our own.
We harvested borlotti beans, dried them and put them in jars so that we can use them in our soup. We had a really good crop of potatoes and pumpkins and have been enjoying those in our cooking. We had so many onions that we were able to make onion strings. We collected and stored lots of seeds and planted some flower seeds.
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​We had lots of apples this year so we asked the Community Project if we could borrow their apple press. We made lots of apple juice which we all enjoyed drinking!
In November we rescued five chickens and gave them a new home. Two of them settled in very well with the other Bantams. The other three are enjoying living with the big chickens.
We moved a big pile of rubble to a skip to make a space for another shed that needed replacing. We had to dismantle this because it was so broken. This is for the animal food and equipment.
We’ve enjoyed everything we have done at Perlins this season and are looking forward to telling you about the next one!